Ambassadors, Free Birth control Pills, Arab Spring… [Reader Post]

This post is a collection of some random musings – subjects I wanted to mention that weren’t long enough to warrant their own posts. Despite the range of topics this post is a “gun control / gun ownership rights discussion free zone”. It’s not that I don’t have opinions on the subject – I do. It’s just that with all of the electrons that have been spilled on the topic there’s nothing I can possibly add to the discussion. Of course, this doesn’t prevent someone determined enough to hijack the comment thread…

Anna Wintour may become our next ambassador to London. This is the Vogue editor who was said to be the inspiration for the obnoxious main character in “The Devil Wears Prada”. If you’re unfamiliar, this is a person known to be an arrogant, condescending, smug one percenter. In other words, we’re choosing someone with no diplomatic skills to be our chief diplomat to our closest ally. As an American I’m not happy about this, but given that we chose to re-elect a president who has gone out of his way to offend the U. K. I think Wintour is the perfect choice to represent the Obama administration. Remember those good old days when we were worried about how many generations it would take to repair the damage that George W. Bush did to our reputation abroad?

I’ve found the perfect compromise on the free birth control pill debate – free pills and reduced long term costs! Any woman who wants “free” birth control pills, morning after pills, etc. can have them provided she signs a waiver agreeing that she will pay all expenses for drugs and treatment if she is to contract Herpes, AIDS, or any of the other diseases whose spread can be prevented by choosing to use a condom. As the old joke goes, “What’s the difference between love and Herpes? Herpes is forever!” Thank you thank you, I’ll be here all week. Be sure to tip your bartenders! Your right to freedom of choice ends when I am forced to pay for that choice and you expect me to shoulder the consequences of your choices.

To kill the obvious counter argument, no you don’t have the right to make me pay to raise your kid if you wind up getting pregnant, either. Conservatives have argued for opening up the health insurance markets – transfer the tax credit from businesses to individuals to allow for individual choice. Let companies choose to sell across state lines. Let the companies choose which products they offer. Let people choose which insurance they want to buy based on whether the company chooses to cover morning after pills, or viagra, or whatever is important to each individual. Or choose to use a condom or Heaven forbid, abstain. Choice goes beyond being allowed to do anything you want – it also means accepting responsibility for those choices.

When you get down to it, isn’t the birth control mandate just a subsidy for young, attractive heterosexuals? For reasons that are hopefully obvious enough that I don’t need to list them, birth control is a product that is generally not needed by the middle aged – elderly, ugly people, as well as gays and lesbians. I for one can not endorse this kind of discrimination against the LGBT community.

The Vodkapundit once said something to the effect of, “To feminists being dependent on a man is not cool. But somehow being dependent on the man became cool?” The better question now is that between Sandra Fluke, The Life of Julia, and that creepy ad about the young woman who wanted to lose her virginity to Obama, how did we get to the point where a middle aged white guy like me is screaming “Keep your laws off of my body!” while these enlightened feminists are purring to the government “Take me, big boy!”

I believe it was Stephen Kruiser (@Stephenkruiser – warning: He’s a big name who will follow you back but he tweets continuously) who tweeted something to the effect of: “The Left has become more like The Man that it was back when they were protesting The Man!”

I can’t vouch for this from personal experience, but I think that the government makes for a terrible husband.

I’m amazed nobody else has picked up on this. Remember when early on in the Occupy Wall Street protests and the Arab uprisings how the press was comparing the two in the most happy, glowing light? Now we have in Egypt a leader who may be worse than his predecessor (and a logical extension of how any of the OWS crowd would rule if given power) and in Benghazi we have rioters destroying property paid for by US taxpayers and a few rapes and murders thrown in. Not to mention the shared contempt for the United States and Western culture in general that have been present from the start – how has the press missed how the two movements become more and more alike as time goes by?

Given everything that’s gone down since the start of the Arab Spring, does anyone still think that the Middle East would be a better place today if Saddam Hussein were still in power today?

Even if you think it would be better, do you think that there wouldn’t be a nuclear arms race between Iran and Iraq right now?

I can’t recall the person on Twitter who raised this point when Kate Middleton’s pregnancy was announced – “Why is the press saying that Kate is expecting a baby? Don’t they know it’s a fetus?”

The Iowahawk (@Davidburge) had a brilliant tweet a while back: “I fully support the separation of Church and State, especially for those whose church IS the state!”

Whenever I hear the left crow about how wonderful Obamacare is and will be I am reminded of Jefferson’s remark that “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” Remember how when W. was president this was a rallying cry of the left back when they opposed the War on Terror? This was before the time when leaving Guantanamo open and blowing up terrorists via drone (along with the civilians they hide behind) became cool.

Is it me, or even when they win key elections the left just keep getting angrier? Aside from that wonderful period between November 2008 and January 2009 when Obama was still a shiny new toy and how he would actually lead was not yet a painful reality does anyone remember a time where the left in general did not seem really angry?

The left loves to throw out the word “sustainable” quite a bit. How is it that term disappears whenever there is a discussion about our federal debt?

This story quietly came and went around Thanksgiving – a law that was initially created to protect e-mail privacy instead was changed to expand government power to snoop into our email. And the media collectively yawned. This is one of those moments where I wish Bush were still president. Not that this wouldn’t have happened on his watch, but at least there would be outrage from the media.

I am now convinced that Barack Obama truly is the smartest man alive. Who else can be a near failure four years into a job and still be able to convince 118 million people that he deserves another four years on that job? Have any of you ever gotten a promotion or been hired to a company and four years later all of your failures are the fault of your predecessor? Dang, but that Kool Aid sure does taste good.

Nan G

Talking about ”the pill” and all of the obvious ails it does not protect against is easy.
The Left simply will not pay for the consequences of their own actions.
I was surprised this month by one story after another about free condom dispensers in public middle and high schools.
At least those protect both gay and straight.
They prevent both pregnancy and disease….to a great extent and IF used properly.
But free is too cheap!
Obama wants MONEY.
Therefore ”free” pills must be part of ObamaCare.
It is the only way to suck the elderly, the tubes-tied, the historectomied, the chaste and the gay of a bigger part of his health care’s costs.

Cary

If I pay for my health insurance, including prescription coverage… The pills I am provided ARE NOT FREE TO ME!!! Your personal approval of a particular drug is irrelevant. NOT FREE – just covered like any other prescription.

Al Reasin

“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” was said by Mr. Franklin, although the quote comes in many forms. Close but no banana.

As to guns, we have a social experiment in Utah where CCW permit holders have been able to carry in schools and colleges since 2004. In Texas since 2008. So where are the stats on less safe schools as the anti-gun pundits, and some of my relatives, claim would happen if teachers were armed across the county. Just saying.